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David Sharpe (2 February 191030 March 1980; age 70) was a stuntman who appeared as an Enterprise security crewman in the Star Trek: The Original Series third season episode "Day of the Dove", and later stunt doubling for James Daly in the episode "Requiem for Methuselah". He is the earliest born stunt performer.

Career[]

An USAAF veteran of the Second World War, he was also one of only two Star Trek actors who appeared in Paramount Pictures' 1953 classic science fiction production War of the Worlds (the other being Charles J. Stewart). Sharpe played a looter in that film which was an adaptation of the story by H.G. Wells.

Sharpe had performed stunts in more than 4,500 films, beginning with 1922's Robin Hood and concluding with 1978's Heaven Can Wait (with Hamilton Camp, Ed Peck, Morgan Farley, and Robert Fortier). His other motion picture stunt credits include Stagecoach (1939), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939, with Charles Drake), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Singin' in the Rain (1952, with Gail Bonney and Robert Fortier), Touch of Evil (1958), The Poseidon Adventure (1972, with John Crawford, Bill Catching, Elizabeth Rogers and George Sawaya), and Blazing Saddles (1974, with Bill Catching, Dick Crockett, Seamon Glass, Troy Melton, Hal Needham, Jack Perkins, and Bill Zuckert).

With regards to Sharpe's war service is the 1951 war film Wild Blue Yonder, in which he played the part of Medal of Honor winner Henry Eugene Erwin, a fellow wartime USAAF air man. [1] Aside from Erwin, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and art director Matt Jefferies were decorated USAAF war veterans and wartime colleagues of Sharpe as well.

Sharpe was a founding member of the Stuntmen's Association, an inductee of the Stuntmen's Hall of Fame, and a recipient of the Yakima Canutt Award. He died from Lou Gehrig's Disease at the age of 70.

External links[]

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